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IBM Unveils Nanophotonic Chips that Could Lead the Exascale Computing Revolution

“IBM is prepped to lead the way into the next era of exascale computing…saying its next-gen silicon chips that communicate via pulses of light, rather than electrical signals, will be commercially available starting next year.

This would allow for chip technology and processors that are 1,000 times faster than today’s petascale computers.

This switch from copper to light is what would make chips that communicate over optical interconnects rather than electron swapping connections can perform much faster. And the more optical connections you have, the better the performance.“

This would be a radical disruptive innovation, however due to its price being higher (at least initially) it would take time for it to be cost effective for overshot and more importantly mainstream customers. However, the businesses which employed these chips would be given an excellent “sword” and create a higher motivation to innovate with the added possibilities.

The biggest winner here will be whoever can produce the cheapest nanophotonic, allowing for successful penetration of the mainstream client base and retail level sales. This will rely heavily on new, standalone value networks, as using overlapping ones will not have the materials needed to create this type of chip. This will create asymmetrical motivation and allow a firm to release up-market disruptive innovations.

“The essence of the flaw is that the method for router updates runs on the honor system.”

Taken from MacSpies.com

Recently, networking hardware that routes traffic on the Internet got new marching orders: Requests for data from 15 percent of Internet addresses—including Dell.com, Yahoo.com, Microsoft.com, and U.S. government sites—were directed to go through China. The hijacking happened when a small Chinese Internet service provider updated its routing information, advertising that its network was the best way to get to various blocks of Internet addresses assigned to government agencies and companies worldwide. The latest incident stands out partly because China Telecom was able to route its hijacked traffic to the correct destinations, fueling allegations that it may have captured the communications for analysis.

It seems that there is a great, wide open market for a firm to create a disruptive technology, such as a new router or new technique for securely directing router requests. It would sell incredibly fast to all the huge credit card companies and online business which constantly are trying to convince shoppers that purchasing online is just as safe as in a store. It would disrupt many industry’s security practices, since businesses which choose not to upgrade would be seen as unsafe retailers and begin to lose business as public confidence diminishes.

If you don’t have time to watch the whole thing, start watching at 14:45, at around 15:30 he discusses disruptive innovation (drag the bar at the bottom to skip forward).

Watch 10:25 to about 11:15 to see the video of his disruptive innovation in action (it’s pretty amazing).

Here Engineer RA Mashelkar shares three stories of ultra-low-cost design from India that use bottom-up rethinking, and some clever engineering, to bring expensive products (cars, prosthetics) into the realm of the possible for everyone.

If you have never visited Ted.com before, take some time to check it out, high informative and concise presentations on a variety of pertinent issues affecting our world.

Everyone is probably familiar with the Edge and Temple’s student housing….and how incredibly slow and painful it can be to get anything fixed or replaced. The Edge has taken a bold, highly-innovative move and has allowed their facebook page to become a medium for resolving maintenance requests and allowing students to gripe in general. I think this is a great example of the asymmetrical motivations of various organizations, as they are coming in under the shield of more accessible and simpler customer service. This difference could potentially become their sword, as people might be drawn to the Edge because of their high-level of attentiveness to service issues.

However, I would also point out that this method places much pressure on the company to vigilantly watch the page and professionally respond to each post. Missing just one may cause an irate tenant who feels they were intentionally ignored. Plus, an outsider may come across their page and view the many service requests as a sign of a run-down building with a lot of unnecessary hassles involved.

I believe the Edge is right in taking this risk, however I would make a different page for service requests than the actual main page advertising their business though.

Serbian inventor Nikola Tesla, who went on to father many of the inventions that define the modern electronic era, was the first to let electrons off their leash, in 1890.

Tesla based his wireless electricity idea on a concept known as electromagnetic induction,holds that electric current flowing through one wire can induce current to flow in another wire, nearby. The product of the 21st century is an inductive device, much like the one Tesla envisioned, but a lot smaller. It looks like a mouse pad and can send power through the air, over a distance a few inches.

Michigan-based Fulton Innovation unveiled its first set of wirelessly charged consumer products at the Consumer Electronics Show early this year.

A newer website has a very innovative new idea: Instead of paying postal companies high fees for shipping and waiting for delivery while the uncertainty of a large company losing your shipment grows with each day, send it with a stranger.

Citizenshipper.com allows senders to post free ads for shipments and a free bid on each contract for the enrolled drivers. Drivers can deliver a fridge, a sofa, or something as small as a time-sensitive letter. It is an easy way to subsidize gas for simply dropping off a package to a destination that’s already on your route to work, school ,etc.

Since the launch of this site in 2008, there has never been a problem with a driver not being paid or a package not being delivered, thus their credibility remains very high. They enable this by using a three-tier security verification process–with each level of clearance, the additional abilities and options a driver is given and the sender receives an elevated sense of reassurance.

The innovation here lies in an eBay like structure, allowing a free marketplace for something that was previously virtually monopolized by a few select companies; certain individuals may even have they feedback and reputation grow to the point where they are a highly sought after package deliverer.

Business Week has an article called “How to Measure Innovation”, wherein it discusses a British team and their goal to create an index to asses innovativeness in each industry.

Claiming that the original standard of money invested in R&D does not correlate properly with innovations, since banking and other industries spend very little on R&D yet have made some of the largest leaps in their field. Some of proposed criterion for this new innovation index:

organizational change

investment in management and skills training

competitive performance over time

a peer review in which company executives both help to define the innovation indicators and rate each other.

“Innovation today is multidirectional, not only about producing new products but also about services, technical standards, business models, and processes.”